“We don’t want to trade Erick Aybar; he’s a great, winning player. We need to win more games this year, and he’s going to be a big part of that. So we’re very happy to hold onto Eric Aybar.”

He also said that Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson “have all been very impressive” during spring training, that he wouldn’t rule out calling them up this year, and added, “Sometimes, when you bring up prospects early, they’re more willing to sign long-term because they know you didn’t hold them hostage or try to manipulate them in any way.”

Now, ordinarily, when a GM is about to trade a guy, you start hearing them deny that they are about to trade that player a bit more loudly than usual. (For example, Coppy hasn’t loudly denied any plans to trade Ender Inciarte in a while. That could suggest that there haven’t been any recent offers he likes.)

If there is one thing that the last 24 months have taught us, it is that this team is willing to sell anything that isn’t bolted to the floor. I would be shocked if Aybar was still a Brave in August.

I’m usually a glutton for snarky comments, but when I saw the headline for that Gossage article, I didn’t even bother. Just reeked of “angry old man”.

Norris looked good again today. Winkler’s velocity was higher than I thought.

Could Swisher be any more of a sunk asset at this point? I’m glad we don’t have, really, any expectations for him, but I don’t see how you break camp with him on the bench when you’ve got Bourn/Peterson/KJ/Beckham/Bonifacio/Castro all fighting for 4 spots. KJ’s your backup 1st baseman, Bourn and Bonifacio are your back up left fielders, and they all have more value than Swisher at this point.

Also, Mallex is leading the spring in ABs. Are they really wanting to get that good of a look at him?

We owe Swisher $15 million no matter how much Cleveland gave us in cash. It wasn’t cash designated to be spent only on Nick Swisher.

The problem with cutting Swisher isn’t sunk cost, it’s that there is a non-zero chance that he plays decently and someone agrees to take on a portion of his contract (Oh, believe me–I know how close to zero it is, but it’s not zero). In that way, the cost isn’t really sunk just yet.

I don’t think we should trade Aybar unless we get a solid prospect. He will still have the same value at the deadline, barring a disastrous first half, and injuries will happen around the league. Someone could overpay for him. It’s also possible he has a strong first half, more in line with 2011-2 and 2014, making him even more attractive.

I get the feeling we will be trying to get ourselves excited about the Cardinal’s 19th and 26th best prospects pretty soon. They only have 2 top-100 guys after promoting several studs the last couple years, and I’m sure their top 6, at least, would be “off limits”

You know how in Interstellar Matthew McConaughey goes into outer space and travels near light speed so that he barely ages but everyone on earth ages a lot? @42 makes me think that I should look into buying a ticket.

@56, meh. I could argue because you get so many things wrong, but for all intents and purposes you’ll be right. Matt Ryan is probably the 8th or 10th best QB in the NFL, and with incompetent management, he may as well be Brian Hoyer.

Braves are now 3 and 10 during spring training. It’s a good thing that the spring training record means absolutely nothing. If it did, I would be worried that the Braves wouldn’t have a good season this year.

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch